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Monday, January 5, 2015

Balls in the Air

Which better than balls to the wall, I guess. Although I might be at the 'balls to the wall' stage before too long. But I digress...

I have a lot of balls in the air right now. And I've never been much of a juggler.

I'm working on getting Dying Embers ready for publication. Ugh, this was part of the reason I held onto the idea of being traditionally published for so long. There's a lot to do and I really wanted someone else to have to do it. Just to give you an idea:

I had to find and contract an editor.
I had to find and contract my own cover artist.
Round one edits*.
Round two edits*.
Receive and evaluate cover samples.
If samples aren't right, do the back and forth thing with the artist. (I assume. I don't know exactly how this part works.)
Format book for everywhere it needs to sell. (Amazon, B&N, Smashwords, print, etc.)
Learn about formatting.
Work on marketing.
Be visible so when my book does come out people aren't all 'who is this chick again?'

Since I've never been traditionally published, I assume they would do most of that without me - with the exception of the starred bits. And the marketing would fall on me as well as them. I guess.

And there's getting the next book ready enough to be able to send it off to my editor in March without her wanting to poke out her eyes with a pointy stick. At which point, the process will begin again.

Add to that the unwise move of paying for a month of Ancestry.com (what was I thinking), and the whole furbaby dental extravaganza, and I'm juggling chainsaws at the county fair.

Life, writing, editing, life, writing, editing, life... well you get the gist.

And let's not talk about housework, shall we? Thank the gods Hubs does the laundry or I'd be writing this post naked. Also, thank the gods I use dish washing as a break. It's hard to eat chili off a paper plate.

Still, it's kind of exciting. Soon I'll have a book people can buy and read. I'll have a book I can hold in my hands and put on my shelf. And that's worth every ball I can throw into the air.

This is why writing is a career--every bit as much a job as getting up in the morning, driving to an office, and working for someone else. You have the talent, the drive, and I'm cheering you on! You can do this. More importantly, you WILL do this! :D

Now put the mouse down, close the web browser and get to work! (Me, too!!!!)

You can do it! In fact, you did all this when you worked in an office. No sweat. ;-)

For what it's worth, trad publishers don't bother to market anymore. They expect the author to do 99% of the marketing, publicity, public outreach... All of my weakest skills. (Who am I kidding? I don't have *any* of those skills.)

I'm feeling your pain. I like organization and right now I feel like I'm living in chaos. It's nerve-racking. It's supposed to snow tonight. I hate snow, but in a way I think I'll be glad something will keep me in. Maybe I'll get some work done. :)

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Who I Am

Writer of suspense, speculative fiction (aka dystopian, futuristic, post-apocalyptic... pick one, they all work), and urban fantasy for the adult market. Minor conspiracy theorist and major hermit, armchair Jeopardy! champion and fount of useless knowledge, pessimistic optimist and hopeful romantic, B.E. Sanderson spends her time reading, writing, gardening, and generally enjoying life with her husband and their cat.